Flooding

In Haiti, `famine is just around the corner'

The images coming out of Haiti are as staggering as the statistics: four hurricanes in less than one month; hundreds dead, tens of thousands homeless, nearly a million people displaced. Eight of the country's 10 geographic departments are submerged in a blanket of brackish water, including Haiti's one remaining breadbasket, the Artibonite. Major arteries and bridges to the hardest hit areas have been wiped out.

Haiti is already the poorest country in the Western Hemisphere. There will be no tomorrow for many of its eight million unless food, water and medical supplies are made available immediately, then dispersed in a coordinated, efficient and expedient manner.

There is no way to head off natural disasters, but something could have been done to save lives. Haiti is the only country in the Caribbean and Central America where the United States hasn't built an Emergency Relief Center (ERC) or a Disaster Relief Warehouse (DRW). Every other country in the region has at least one, according to the Miami-based U.S. Southern Command, which is responsible for security operations in Central and South America and the Caribbean.

Two years ago $635,000 was approved for an ERC in Port-au-Prince. Last year $271,000 was approved for a DRW. But because the Haitian government has not granted land titles, the projects are on hold. The metal sheets needed to construct the buildings remain stacked up in a warehouse. Instead of pulling blankets, food, water and medical supplies from a DRW in-country, hurricane victims have had to wait for helicopter drops and supplies from the U.S.S. Kearsarge.

''Based on things we've seen in other countries, we can assume that having them would have made things easier,'' said Steve Carro, humanitarian assistance program manager for Southcom. Jamaica, for example, has two DRWs and one EOC. When Gustav made landfall last month rescue teams were able to pull supplies from a nearby source, shortening the response time and reducing dependence on outside assistance.

Say what you will about the Cuban government, only five people lost their lives when two hurricanes made direct hits in less than eight days. ''There was an evacuation plan,'' said Gladys Rodes in a telephone interview from Havana. ``The government has centers where we can go for food, medicine, everything we need. It's very well organized. No one is left on their own.''

Haitian residents have always been on their own. Four years ago, when Tropical Storm Jeanne flooded Gonaives -- Haiti's second-largest city -- residents had no warning. Several thousand people lost their lives. The government was forced to rely on international aid; there was neither a national plan nor supplies for disaster relief.

Gonaives is flooded again, perhaps unnecessarily. In 2005, the World Bank launched the $12 million Emergency Recovery and Disaster Management Project to provide for, among other things, the construction of levees, terracing and drainage works. The other components of the project, including the construction of an office in the Ministry of Interior, ate up 90 percent of the budget. To date no real flood works projects have been built.

The relief effort must become the No. 1 priority for the country's newly installed government of Michéle Duvivier Pierre-Louis. She replaced Prime Minister Jacques Edouard Alexis, who was ousted in April after riots sparked by rising food and fuel prices. According to the Family Early Warning Systems Network (composed of USAID, The European Union, the U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization and the World Food Program), 2.3 million Haitians were al ready in a precarious food security situation in July. The Family Early Warning Systems Network predicted that this number would double by December. This was before Faye, Gustav, Hanna and Ike pummeled Haiti.
*********CONTINUES The images coming out of Haiti are as staggering as the statistics: four hurricanes in less than one month; hundreds dead, tens of tho... more

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